Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-02-23
A COWARDLY BLOW.
A SOUTH sIDB NAN DYING FROM A FRAC-
TURRD SKULL.
Struck While Passing Along The Street By
Some Unknown Pary-A Very
Peculiar Casa

nOnc Ia Tue SCOOuo SooAy
Alley A, south OF Alley IL, South Side,
diving from the effects of q fractured skull.
The injury was received between five and
six weeks age, bat it only came to the at
tention OF the police authorities Monday
night last, when Officer Grubler was in
formed of the mans condition. Grubler
reported the matter to Chief Smith yester-
day morning, and the Captain at once
took energetic measures TO investigate the
matter, Prosecuting Attorney Jordan and
Justice W. H. Davis being appraised Of the
case.
Yesterday afternoon the Chief,
Messrs. Jordan and Davis, OH
Ger Grubler and q REGISTER reporter
called at the residence of the Kile family.
Il is situated in the center of the block
bounded by Alley A and Main street, and
is Immediately in the rear of No. PSF Main
street After passing through a yard and
climbing a not very secure pair Of stairs,
the party knocked at the door on the
second floor, and were urshured intoa we'll
kept kitchen by q sister of the wounded
man. The Officers errand was soon made
known, and the gentlemen were escorted
into a front room, where Kile lay in bed.
In another bed at the opposite side OF the
room, his two little children lay asleep,
while grouped around the apartment were
half q dozen ladies, among them Mrs. Kile
and her two sisters.
The especial purpose of the visit was TO
obtain q deposition from the wounded
man as 10 the. manner in which he was
hurt, it having been stated by the physi-
clan attending him that his recovery was
very improbable. The sufferer was
quite unable to speak, however, and lay
on his back, utterly unconscious of what
was passing asOund him, his eyes being
half open and fixed upon the ceiling with
q look utterly devoid of intelligence. He
seemed to be in a comatOse condition,
breathing slowly and heavily, and his
whole aspect creating the impression that
he was suffering from the p~ressureof a por-
ton of the skull upon the brain.
IL being impossible to obtain a deposi-
ton under these circumstances, the officers
were obliged to content themselves with
the statements Of Mrs. Kile and the sisters
Of the patient, nothing oft being reduced
to writing, however, save the notes made
by the reporter. In reply to questions by
Chief Smith and Prosecuting Attorney
Jordan, Mrs. Kile said:
"My husband is a coal miner, and be-
fore his injury he worked for KOontz, at
the Bogg's run bank. He boarded with
Mrs. Clark, at the lower end Of the city,
while at work, and only cam up town on
Saturday nights. Five weeks ago last
Friday January 14l l was down to his
boarding house TO see him, but he was not
there. When he came in. Mrs. Clark told
him Mollie and the children had been
there, and that night about 10 o'clock he
started to come up home. When he was
on Jacob street, between Thirty-third and
Thirty-fourth streets, he went into Sulli-
vans saloon and got a glass Of beer. While
be was in there SOM men ~endeavored to
pick a quarrel with him, but he told them
he was not in a fighting humor, and went
out, the barkeeper also saying they could
not fight in his place-to 90 outside. My
husband started on up street, and at the
corner of Thirty-third street he was struck
twice on the head by sOme one. He stag
gered on q few steps and fell to the pave
ment, ut the same time calling for the
police. An officer came in q moment or
two and picked my husband up and put
him on a street car coming up town. He
worked for the next day or two as usual,
but complained Of feeling bad, and finally
went to DR.. Taylor. He did not tell the
doctor about the blows on his head, and
the doctor treated him for typhoid fever.
He cam home from the doctors and went
to bed, the Monday after he was hit. He
kept telling me he had a soft place. on his
head, and described being hit. / told DR..
TAYLOR about it the next time he came, and
the doctor at once said typhoid fever
had nothing to do with his allment-that
it was all the blow. He examined the
wound on the top of his head, which / had
dressed, thinking it was a mere scratch,
and took out q piece Of bone. His ear had
been swelled up as big as four ears, but
had gone down. He got no better, how
ever, and the Doctor said he thought he
could not live. DR.. Wilson came to see
him after that, but he has been growing
worse Ill tue tlInt. My uuSoahu Coulu
talk at first, and told ME what |
have said, but for the last week
he could only say mo- He never
told who hit him. He said no did not
know; that he thought he was taken for
some one else and hit by mistake, or had a
personal enemy who hit him in the dark.
/ think it was some OF the men who were
in the saloon"
These details we're ~corrOborated by
Kile's sisters, who had also talked to him
before be grew so bad, and there is no
doubt the story is substantially correct.
1t is probable thG man was able to
get about at first, because ths broken bone
did not bear mainly upon the brain, but
the pressure of his fingers In feeling the
soft place" may have forced the bone
down, and induced more serious symp-
toms. It il probable, also, that the broken
bone was not al removed by the physi-
clan. or that there is another fracture in
the region Of the right ear, where he was
also hit.
The case is a serious one, and it Is to be
hoped the guilty party may he discovered
and arrested.